Mom2Mom Recipe Chat! June 30th- July 6th. Kitchen tricks & hints.. Everyone Welcome.

Hi Everyone,

I hope you had a great weekend!

Upon Cathy's suggestion this week are sharing some of our hints and tricks from our kitchens!

 For instance,how do you  make those dumplings that you layer on hot stew.  Or what makes a "to die for" pie dough? So what is everyone's "secret" ingredient or their "secret" trick.

We look forward to hearing from you!!!!!

Thanks and have a super week!

Redawna

Hey everyone,

Well it is HOT here tonight. Going to move the big fan into the bedroom shortly. It was hard sleeping last night.

I will have to print the pictures off from our fishing trip yesterday. It was awesome, fishing at a lake at the bottom of 2 mountains!!!!! Gorgeous!! I had to use DH's camrera so I hope there are a few decent pictures. It was wonderful!

Today we did a bunch of work around here, to hot to really go into to much. Going to be even warmer tomorrow.

Hope to take off for a few days later in the week. Car has to be dropped off, gets fixed on Thursday.

Oh, Happy Belated Anniversary to Greg & Michelle!!!!!!!! I hope you had a nice relaxing weekend!

Well I guess I should try and get some sleep. If I had a tent I think I would be in the back yard!!!!

See you all in the am! Or if I can't sleep.

Redawna

Hi all!  Redawna, thanks for starting us off.  Cathy, good idea for a topic.  I don't make dumplings (it wasn't something we grew up on either) so I can't help there.  My husband makes a wonderful pie crust- I know one of his secrets is to make sure the butter and water are both cold. 

Well, I posted last on last week's thread, but not sure that everyone reads through them.  I just wanted to let you know that the new strawberry marshmallows are fabulous in s'mores!!  I bet they would be good in hot chocolate, and in some jello salads!  Check them out.

The boys had some friends over tonight for a couple of hours- we hit dinner time (DH was at work) and I managed to come up with food for five hungry boys.  I grilled some polish sausages, and made a TON of mac and cheese, and then had raw veggies and bing cherries with it.  It filled them all up!  (I had some homemade sweet&sour chicken and it was very tasty.)

I'm up doing laundry tonight, but have to get up pretty early for work in the morning.  Also, DS #1 is going home with Grandpa in the afternoon and then the two of them are going golfing Tuesday morning, so I have to have things ready for him to pack up.  DS #2 has a baseball game tomorrow night... I think my schedule is full enough for a Monday!

Take care all, and hope to pop in soon.  Ellie

Hi Ellie!  I will definately keep an eye out for thiose marshmallows, I am in trouble if I actually find them!!! They sound too good!

Have a great Monday!

I have excellent luck with pie crusts, I will have to look for the recipe I use. And yes, the trick is to use ice water and not work the pastry to much.

I also have a good dumpling recipe I will have to post. Never had those until I met DH. I like them!

Hey there Redawna! (I was typing and didn't see your second post until now.)  You have a busy week it sounds.  And DS is done with school now, right?  Wow, public school let out here and BAM- our schedule went nuts!!

Happy Belated Anniversary to Michelle and DH! 

Michelle, how are you feeling?  Take care and don't overdo!

Belinda- I hope your shoulder and jaw are better by morning!  I can't believe how my headaches have been reduced by getting my two teeth worked on!

Sassy, I hope you have made it safely home.  What do you and DH have planned for the summer?

Well gang, I'm falling asleep at the keyboard so off I go....'night.

E

Hi all!  Hope everybody is doing well and looking forward to this week!  DS and I are going to Missouri to visit my parents (grandpa and grandma).  DH is starting to work nights this week, so we thought it would be a good time to let him acclimate to his sleep schedule.  DS is almost 3 and doesn't understand to be quiet to let daddy sleep - he wants to go in and lay next to him and talk to him.  So I am not sure how much I will be on this week.  My parents have dial up (they live in the country where high speed is not available yet) so it will depend on how patient I want to be with their computer!

We had a scary incident at Walmart yesterday - DS was reaching for something and fell out of the cart.  He is fine, just a little bruise on his forehead.  He was so upset and just wanted daddy (who was not with me at the time).  He cried and cried.  I felt like a horrible mom.  And to top it all off, he got hot on the way home in the back seat and had been so upset that he got sick.  Ugh......... the one thing that I don't do well is barf.  I was gagging the whole time.  We got home and I gave him a nice warm bath and he had toast for dinner.  He was running around like crazy and felt really good by bedtime! 

Redawna - fishing sounds fun.  We went the other night (Saturday) in our pond.  We each caught one fish. They just weren't really biting.  Do you have any milky way treats left????  If it were my house, they would be gone by now.

 Hi to everybody else coming in this morning - Ellie, Michelle, Nancy and all others! 

Love the topic - not sure I have any right off, but that tip with the baked potatoes in the crockpot that ProudMother2 posted sounds yummy and seems to be getting some rave reviews!

Gotta run and get ready to go.  It is a four hour drive so want to get on the road by mid-morning.

Kelly

Good morning friends!

Cathy, Great topic idea. One kitchen trick I have is cover the holes of the s&p shakers w/ scotch tape when you want to fill them.

Redawana, Sounds like a wonderful time. Looking forward to the pics.

Ellie, Thanks for the heads up on the marshmallows. DD LOVES marshmallows and I know she would gobble up the strawberry mallows too.

(((Kelly & Seth))) what a lousy day for you. Glad DS was better by the end of the day. You must've been a nervous wreck. Don't be hard on yourself, I know you know now that you are not a horrible mom.

Going to check out the bb and then get something to eat.

Nancy

Be back later when I can see to type straight

Michelle

Hi again,

Whenever there's a shelf in the fridge that's bare, I clean the shelf w/ Windex Anti-bacterial. Some people wait a while to clean the inside of the fridge but if you consistently do that you wont have to worry about taking everything out.

Nancy

Good Morning everyone!

Michelle, hope your feeling better. How was the morning sickness compared to the boys? Hopefully it stops soon.

Nancy, thats a good idea!  I also line my veggie drawers with paper towels.

I love my Anti Bacterial wipes and use them everywhere!!!!

Kelly, have a good drive. (((Kelly & Seth))) so sorry to hear about your bad day.

Hi Ellie, have a really good week! 

It is going to be super hot today, already is in the house. Have a few jobs for around the yard today, possibly move the reat of that gravel that on the driveway. DHG wants to tar down the north wall of the house before we lay fabric and the rest of the gravel.

Hi to everyone popping in today!!!

I will post my pie crust next.

Have a great day!

Redawna

Hello!

Redawna-I can't wait to see your fishing pictures.  It siounds like you had a lot of fun.

Michelle- I hope you're feeling much better soon.

My best trick is to use double salt and only egg whites in my chocolate chip cookies.  I accidentally put double salt in a half-batch of choc. chip cookies I was making once-and I used only an egg white-but they were the very best cookies ever.  And of course use only butter in those cookies too-never margarine. 

China, thank you for joining us!!!!! I still have to get those pictures printed off!

Sorry to read you are STILL waiting for a machine to be delivered. Hope that happens for you today.

Thanks for your trick for the cookies, sounds good! I always use butter in my baking.

 Hope you have a really good day!

Perfect Pie Crust.

That a glass of cold water and put it into the freezer for 10 minutes.

2 cups of flour

1 tsp of salt

3/4 cup of shortening

1 egg slightly beaten

1 tap of vinegar

water

Combine the flour and salt in a medium bowl. Cut in shortening. Place eggs and vinegar in 1/2 cup and add the cold water from the freezer to make a full half cup. Stir this into the flour mixture working as little as possible. It is okay to have chuncks of shortening in the crust, it does not have to be worked in to be a smooth dough. Roll to fit pie plate. Makes 2 crusts or one double crust pie.

If prebaking, bake at 375*C for 8-10 minutes.

Redawna

Redawna-We were told that if the maintanance guy doesn't bring it today he'll be fired...but I really think that the management tells the maintance what to do anyway, so I think that she told me that just to appease us.  It's just ridiculous that it's been a whole week since it broke and I still don't have a new one.  The lady underneath me (whose apartment got wet b/c of the flooding from my washer) yelled at the managers and they fixed her apartment up right away...I am not the yelling type, but I do wonder if that wouldn't speed things up?

A hint I seen on a cooking show once. When making biscuts, freeze the butter and use a cheese grater to grate the butter into the recipe. Makes it quick and easy!